Enid Marx (1902–1998) was a leading artist and designer, collector and writer, who played an important role in British cultural life in the mid-20th century. Now available in paperback, Alan Powers’ definitive account of her career makes a welcome return to print after its original publication in 2018.

Associated with Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden in the ‘outbreak of talent’ at the Royal College of Art in the 1920s, Marx excelled as a designer and printer of hand-blocked fabrics before branching into industrial woven patterns for London Underground and the wartime Utility Furniture Scheme. After making a significant contribution to book illustration, she went on to design postage stamps and patterns for laminates, becoming a Royal Designer for Industry and an advocate for better design training and industrial patronage. In parallel, with her life partner the historian Margaret Lambert, she formed a collection of ‘Popular Art’, which was bequeathed to Compton Verney in Warwickshire, where it is an increasingly popular attraction.

Selected words and images from Marx’s extensive archive, combined with high-quality reproductions of a wide variety of designs, illuminate Marx’s versatility, high spirits and reconciliation of modernity and tradition through a rare gift for pattern making.